Panel To Study High School Expansion

Council Wants To See Detailed Plan, Cost Estimate

Library Project Would Wait

September 01, 2004|By DANIEL P. JONES; Courant Staff Writer

AVON — The town council Tuesday authorized a building committee to get detailed plans and a cost estimate for a possible expansion that would increase Avon High School's capacity from 900 to about 1,200 students.

Hank Frey, who heads the building committee, and Charles W. Boos, an architect who is chief executive officer at Kaestle Boos, a New Britain architectural firm working for the committee, told the council that the high school property includes enough land to accommodate a building expansion and additional parking.

``We're very pleased that you can find the capacity on the site,'' town council Chairman Richard W. Hines said.

The council voted unanimously to authorize the building committee to get plans for the expansion and come up with a cost estimate by the end of the year.

But the council decided that the high school property, off West Avon Road, is not large enough to accommodate the town's education administration offices, now located at 34 Simsbury Road.

The proposed expansion, which must be approved by town voters in a referendum, would accommodate a rapidly growing student population. A referendum could take place next year, officials said.

The council also voted Tuesday to proceed with a $300,000 purchase of a Country Club Road property -- a two-story house on 0.92 acres -- next to the Avon Free Public Library.

The town has plans to expand the library, and the purchase of the property would provide some of the space needed.

The town plans to draw $368,700 from its surplus fund for the purchase, including $68,700 for legal fees, demolition of the house and restoration of the property to an empty lot that could accommodate the library expansion.

The board of finance last week approved the proposed allocation from the surplus fund, and the council held a public hearing on the matter Tuesday night before voting to approve the project.

Officials initially had expected to proceed with a high school expansion and the library expansion simultaneously. But now the high school project would come first and the library project would follow.

Voters would need to approve the library project in a referendum, and voting might not take place until 2007, Town Manager Phil Schenck said.